


Photo Feud

by Fallen_Ark_Angel



Series: Parenthood [5]
Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-03
Updated: 2015-10-03
Packaged: 2018-04-24 15:12:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4924495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fallen_Ark_Angel/pseuds/Fallen_Ark_Angel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are things in your past that your kids just shouldn't see. And if you're Mira, they involve Sorcerer Weekly and bikinis.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Photo Feud

  


"Mira," Laxus greeted her, tone laced with worry. "We got a problem."

She was just coming through the front door of their tiny apartment, having gotten off from a shift at the guild, ready to come home and just relax some. With a newborn, four year old, and a dragon though, she should have known that that was just a fleeting wish.

"What?" Her heart was in her throat immediately. "What's wrong? Is it the baby? Pike? Is he-"

"No," Laxus said, shaking his head as he came to grab her arm and pull her further into the place. "It's the boy. Nathan."

"What, Laxus? Is he hurt? Or-"

"Worse." Then, looking her in the eyes, the man said, "He found your old magazines."

Pulling him to a stop then, she just stared. "What? Laxus, you had me worried. And what old magazines?"

"Your Sorcerer Weekly shoots," he said. "And…well…"

"What?"

"It all started when I went to go put him down for his nap," the man began. "And I saw it."

Laxus had come into the room, Pike in his arms, ready to put the baby down in his crib and tuck his older brother, his four year old son Nathan, in as well. They'd finally gotten a pretty good routine going in the apartment and, well, Nate loved his naps. Especially if Mira wasn't home. The sooner he went to sleep and woke up, the sooner she'd be there to play with again.

It was when he got in there though that he noticed some new…things adorning the walls.

"Nathan," Laxus groaned as he went to set Pike in the crib. "What have you done?"

"Mmmm…found Mommy." He was busy still flipping through one magazine, searching for more photos. "Found 'er twice."

He had. And, to mark this, he'd ripped each page from the magazine and, having snagged some tape at some point from somewhere in the house, he'd taped (haphazardly) the pages to the walls by his bed. One above it and the other on the wall next to it.

And that was only the first magazine!

"Nathan," Laxus complained as he came over to him. "You shouldn't have done that."

"Why?"

"Because…" Glancing at the magazine pages, it was clear to Laxus that they were not something a little boy should keep of his mother. They were rather risqué and, well, just not a thing a four year old should have. "I'll find you another photo, okay, of Mommy? And you can put that-"

"No!" The blond haired boy glared at his father. "Go 'way, Laxus! My Mira photos. Not yours."

"Nathan, you don't understand," he said, gesturing to the bikini shots. "Those are… Look, I know you don't get it right now, but one day, when you're not scarred for life, you'll thank me for taking these."

"No! Mine!"

They had to have fought over them for ten minutes straight. And, finally, when the brat bit him, Laxus stormed off to wait for his wife to come home and deal with it.

That was his normal plan of attack when it came to the boy.

"Oh, Laxus," Mirajane chided when he finished with his story. "I want Nathan to be comfortable with the human body. So what? I'm in a bikini in his little photo? He doesn't…think like that. He-"

"Demon, it doesn't matter. He thinks you're his mother."

"I am his mother."

"Right," the man agreed. "And, well, no boy should see his mother like that."

"What do you want me to do?"

"Go tell him that you'll give him photos of you, normal ones, that he can hang on his walls."

"If it's that big of a deal," Mira groaned, heading off.

"It is."

In the boys' room, she found their faithful dog resting in the middle of the floor as well as Pike, the poor little baby, still napping in his crib. Nathan, however, had a stack of magazines out and a lot more photos than just two.

"Nathan," Mira greeted as he grinned widely, just from the sight of her. "What have you done?"

"Look, Mommy!" He was excited then. "Found your pictures! I keep them, right here. Me and Pike will always have you now."

"You'll always have me anyways, silly," she said slowly, as she came closer. Laxus was, as much as she hated to admit it, right. The photos were not the conventional keepsakes that a son should keep of her mother. In a couple of them, she was down on her knees, in the sand, looking far more alluring than she wished in that moment. "But, um, Nate-"

"Find more." He was shifting through another magazine then. "Hope so."

"Where did you get the magazines, sweetie?"

"On Daddy's bookshelf," he said with a nod of his head. "Where he keeps mine."

By his, the boy meant the nature magazines that Laxus got for him. Nathan really liked animals, so Laxus always had a few for him to peek through, so he could see photos of different animals.

"Well," Mirajane said as she came to sit on the edge of the little bed. "I think it's very sweet that you want photos of me-"

"I love you."

"Aw."

"Love Mira. Love Mommy." He glanced up at her. "A lot."

"I love you a lot too."

Reaching over then, he patted one of the photos on the wall. "Mommy's always gonna be here."

"Nathan, that's the problem," she said as he just went back to his magazine, flipping the page. "You-"

"Oooh." He pointed at a photo. "Erza."

Mira glanced in there with a frown. "Yeah, that's Erza."

"Yuck." He was moving right along. "Not Mommy."

"Nathan, listen to Mommy now."

"Wha'?"

Taking a breath, Mirajane said, "You know how I'm dressed in a lot of these photos?"

With a nod, he said, "Mommy goes to beach."

"W-Well, I'm in a bikini, yes, and you swim in those-"

"Another." He'd turned the page right to one of her. Laxus must have only had the issues that she appeared in. Nathan wasted no time in ripping the page right out before moving to get up on his knees. He kissed the photo first before moving to tape it up with the others on one of the walls. "Mommy."

"Mira," Laxus called then, poking his head into the room. "Did you get the boy- And he's putting up more. Nice job."

She sent him a glare. "I'm trying, okay? He's been extra cute today, so it's hard to tell him no."

"You just think he's cute because he's, like, in love with you. You. Not me. You see him ripping my photo out of anything? Huh?"

"Oh, I get it," she accused then with a frown. "You don't think this is weird. You're just jealous."

"Damn right I am."

"No curs-"

"But this is weird too," Laxus said as he came further into the room. "Nathan! Look at me."

"Yuck," he grumbled, not doing so. "Laxus."

"Hey-"

"Now, Nate," Mira chided gently. "We love Daddy. Remember?"

"No."

"Nathan."

"I love Mommy." He was finished taping that photo up there and, after patting it again, he fell back onto his butt on the bed to look through more magazines. He wanted all of Mira's photos! "Pike too. We want Mommy pictures."

Actually, at the moment, Pike was waking from his nap and all he wanted was a bottle. He even let out a slight whine, making Mira sigh and get up to tend to him.

"Nathan," the boy's father said as Mira left the room with the baby, leaving them alone. "Look, buddy, these photos that Mommy took, while very appealing to me, are a tad too much for your little sensibilities. And I'm a little annoyed that you took it upon yourself to just rip them up."

"Mine."

"No, Nate. They were mine."

"No."

"What do you mean no? I'm telling you flat out that they were!"

"Mine now." He glanced up at the man. "Mira's my mommy."

"I know."

"I love her."

"I know. And you just want to be surrounded by her constantly, huh? Because you're a creepy kid that's gotten far too attached to her mother, right?"

"Mmmm…yes."

"Nathan."

"Love Mira."

"A lotta guys do, kid. That's why they would buy these magazines," the man told him. "But they're not family photos here, you know? They're…well, I mean, she's not, like, naked in them. But they're definitely sexualize. And-"

"Laxus, what are you telling him?" he heard Mira call from the other room. "Because it does not sound anything like what you should be."

It didn't matter. Nathan wasn't listening anyways. He rarely did. He liked the big guy. They were best buds! But he interfered with Nate and Mira far too much for the boy's taste.

"I'm handling it, demon. Just give me a- And he's ripping another photo out. Nathan-"

"I love Mommy." That time he just glanced at Laxus. "So go away!"

"You never even took your nap, did you?"

"No. Look for Mommy's pictures."

"That's bad."

He just shrugged, moving to tape up that photo as well. "Don't care."

"Nathan." Laxus reached over to pop him gently on the butt. "Behave."

Whining then, he fell back down on his bed. "I wanna keep them!"

"I know you do, buddy, but-"

"Hey, Nate?" Mirajane was in the doorway then and got the boy's attention just by talking. Of course. Because she was just a magical fairy while Laxus was her ugly troll that the boy didn't pay any mind to ever. "I'm a little sleepy. You wanna come take a nap with me? In me and Laxus' bed?"

"Yes!" He practically ran from the room while Mira just smiled and passed Pike off to his father.

"What are you doing, demon?" the man mumbled to her softly to which she just shook her head.

"Trust me. I got this."

Why did he not believe that? For even a second?

Still, she and Nathan disappeared, off to nap and, as he'd skipped his, it was easy to get the four year old down. The second he was, Mirajane left the room as quietly as possible to find Laxus and get the rest of the plan underway.

When Nathan finally did wake back up it was with a yawn and bleary eyes. Oh, and a rumbling tummy. He wanted something to eat.

"Mira," he whispered as he blinked in surprise of her not being there. "Mommy?"

Scrambling from the bed, he set off to find her. It wasn't hard. She was in his bedroom when he got in there, still going through a big book.

"Oh, Nate," she greeted. "You're up. I-"

"Wow," was all his whispered as, for a moment, he just stared at his bedroom wall. Upon it no longer set the magazine spreads of his mother, but rather actual photos, tacked up with care and precision instead of the supervision of a four year old. "Mommy."

"Mmmhmm." Mira was sitting on the floor, slipping more photos out of the album she had, but got to her feet then. "If you wanted pictures, baby, all you had to do was ask."

"Pike, look!" Nathan glanced at where his baby brother was sitting on the floor, mostly laying there and grabbing at his feet, before at the wall. "Mommy pictures. And other pictures."

Mirajane had found a lot for him. There were ones of her, of Laxus, even a few of him. They hadn't taken many of Pike, yet, but one or two were up there. And some of his Aunt Ever and Uncle Elf. Then there was Lisanna (yuck) and one or two of Bickslow and Freed. All of his favorite people.

They were his family.

"I'm back, demon," they heard someone call out then as the front door opened and closed. "The boy up yet?"

"If he hadn't been before, he would have been after you yelling like that."

"Sorry." Laxus came straight to the bedroom. "Hey, buddy. You like your new pictures?"

"Yes!" Nathan was staring up at them with far more interest than he had his other ones. "Yes."

In Laxus hand he held a few more photographs.

"Gramps was all pissy at me," he complained as he went to tack them up. "Before I told him it was under your orders that I was in the book room, taking these outta albums."

"Look, Nate," Mirajane said, gesturing to the ones that Laxus was putting up. "Here's some of when I was really young. And- Oh, Laxus."

"What? You said to get young photos. I got young photos," he grumbled as she awed over one of him from when he was a boy. "What is wrong with you?"

"That's Daddy, Nate," Mira told him, pointing to the photo. The boy didn't care much for it though, more interested in Mira's old photos.

"Mommy was bad," Laxus said as the boy stared in shock at the scowl she was sporting. "Real bad."

"Wow." Nathan was in heaven. There were so many different pictures to look at! And so many had Mirajane in them. "Look, Pike. Lots of Mommy."

Eventually Laxus took his leave once more, not really one up for a walk down memory lane. Besides, Mira seemed to have everything covered. Per usual.

When she found him later, he was in the living room, holding the stack of ripped out pages Nate got from the Sorcerer Weekly magazines.

"I actually should thank the boy," Laxus said as he glanced through them. "Now I don't gotta flip through that godforsaken thing. Can just get right to exactly what I want."

"You're so full of it,"

"Nah, demon. Some of these are hot."

"Some?"

"Hotter, I mean," he corrected, "than others."

With a grin, she came to take a seat on the couch as well and glance over a few with him, knowing the boys were fine in their room. Pike was resting once more in his crib while his big brother went over every photo, oh, at least a thousand times.

"He just really loves you, Mira," Laxus said after they sat there silently for a moment or two. With a grin, she leaned against him.

"Yeah," she whispered. "I know."

 


End file.
